NCAR Tests New Winter Road Safety System on E-470

February 8, 2005

BOULDER—Drivers who take the E-470 toll road east of Denver may have
noticed five weather stations along the way. What they probably don’t
know is that these stations feed information to a groundbreaking Web-based
system developed at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).
The system not only makes E-470 safer to drive down during the winter,
but it will eventually be used by road managers in cold climates around
the country and possibly the world. The tests continue through May.

Called the Maintenance Decision Support System, MDSS promises to save
lives, control costs and chemical use, and keep drivers on the move.
It works by gathering real-time information from forecasts, weather stations,
and surface observations and analyzing it in different ways to predict
road conditions. Road crews receive pavement and subsurface temperatures,
humidity, and wind speeds for short segments of road, followed by recommendations
for when and where to plow and use anti-icing chemicals.

(Photo
by Carlye Calvin.)

“The MDSS has really helped E-470 be able to put
the right chemicals in the right amount down on the road at the right
time,” says J. Matthew Alexander, director of maintenance for E-470. “This
helps us control costs, and it's much better for the environment.”

The Colorado Department of Transportation is currently working on plans
to evaluate the MDSS on I-70 at Floyd Hill and on I-25 south from E-470
to Castle Rock.

NCAR developed the MDSS with sponsorship from the Federal Highway Administration
(FHWA) and support from colleagues at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory,
NOAA Forecast Systems Laboratory, and the U.S. Army’s Cold Regions
Research and Engineering Laboratory. The MDSS technology has been made
publicly available for three years as part of the FHWA’s ongoing
research program. The E-470 test bed is part of that
research effort, according to NCAR scientist William Mahoney,
MDSS project lead. To date, more than 30 organizations, including
commercial companies, have received copies of the MDSS code, he adds.
The system will become available operationally to state departments of
transportation via the private sector.

One of the most significant aspects of the MDSS is that it can learn
from past experiences. The program can review past forecasts from different
sources to see which was most accurate regarding the start of a storm,
its duration, and the type and amount of precipitation. When the program
makes a new forecast, it will factor in the past forecasts and give more
weight to historically accurate ones.

“The bottom line is that departments of transportation can use
the MDSS to stay on top of weather situations, and the level of service
on the highway should be better,” says Mahoney.

The E-470 Public Highway Authority asked to be involved in testing the
MDSS after it learned about the new software program. The authority entered
a 14-month contract with NCAR, from March 2004 through May 2005.

The five weather stations along E-470 are strategically placed to cover
important points along the 47-mile road around the eastern portion of
the Denver metro area. One station sits at Smoky Hill Road, the highest
point on the E-470 beltway. Another station is placed at the bridge over
the Platte River, since additional moisture in the air from the river
affects road conditions on the bridge.

Commercial weather service providers are working with several state
departments of transportation in the Upper Midwest to implement the software.
Weather service providers in Canada and northern Europe have expressed
interest as well. After state road crews in Iowa tested the MDSS during
the past two winters, the Iowa Department of Transportation estimated
that the system could save between 10% and 15% of its annual maintenance
costs.

“Highway agencies around the world are eager to obtain better
weather information and use it more effectively,” Mahoney says. “We
need weather and road condition forecasts that are more specific, more
timely, and tailored for decision makers who are not meteorologists.”

“The MDSS is easy to use and now it plays an integral role in
our winter storm maintenance program,” says E-470’s Alexander.

The National Center for Atmospheric Research and UCAR Office of Programs are operated by UCAR under the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation and other agencies. Opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any of UCAR's sponsors.